Investments in Bulgaria saw a 23% increase for the first time since 2009 and reached EUR 1.6 billion, Bulgaria’s Minister of Economy Bojidar Loukarsky said during a National discussion entitled “Yes! To Bulgarian Economy”. According to Eurostat, in 2015 Bulgaria placed first in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of the foreign direct investment/gross domestic product ratio. 25% of the country’s GDP is formed by the industry, which means that Bulgaria’s economy has been developing and that the highly-proclaimed dependence of that country on EU funds is not a main engine of growth. Bulgaria has a huge potential to attract investments in sectors with high added value through encouragement measures under the Investment Promotion Act, mainly in sectors such as machine building, manufacture of car parts, IT and outsourcing, Minister Loukarsky noted.